A seldom-examined figure in literary-critical circles, Lionel Pigot Johnson was an English poet and critic. The greater part of Johnson’s work was produced during the 1890s, owing to the author’s untimely death in 1902. Johnson was born in Kent on the 15th of March, 1867. His parents were Anglican, his father an army officer and his mother the daughter of a barrister (Cevasco 256). When not away at preparatory school, he grew up at the family’s home in Windsor Forest (Stanford 16). He was something of a black sheep amongst his siblings because of his relatively small frame (he didn’t grow any higher than a few inches above five feet, maintaining an adolescent appearance into adulthood) and his literary calling (his brothers became military men after the fashion of their father) (Cevasco 256).
Following prep school, he was admitted to Winchester College, where he flourished, becoming editor of the school journal the Wykehamistand accruing various other academic honors (Cevasco 257). He then attended New College, Oxford, on a scholarship, where he distinguished himself amongst his peers as being exceptionally erudite and widely read. It was also at Oxford that he first attained the fondness for drinking that would eventually become a ruinous alcoholism (Stanford 17). After graduating with a first, he moved to London, where he began his career as a man of letters, writing as a critic and reviewer for periodicals such as the Academy, the Pall Mall Gazette, and the Daily Chronicle (Cevasco 256).
Shortly after his arrival in London, Johnson joined the group known as the Rhymers’ Club. Formed during the summer of 1890, the Club consisted of an assortment of young male poets who met regularly at the Cheshire Cheese, a local tavern, to read and discuss their work. Members included Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, John Davidson and W.B. Yeats (Benvenuto 669). The Rhymers’ Club published two anthologies—The Book of the Rhymers’ Club in 1892 and The Second Book of the Rhymers’ Club in 1894. The first book contained six poems by Johnson, including "Plato in London" and "A Burden of Easter Vigil", while the second contained a further six of his, among them "Mystic and Cavalier" and "The Dark Angel".
Johnson himself authored only three books during his lifetime. The first of these was not a book of poetry but a work of criticism entitled The Art of Thomas Hardy, published in 1894. His next book was a collection of poetry he had written over the past several years, the 1895 Poems. His third and last book, Ireland, With Other Poems, was published in 1897.
Johnson’s life and work are characterized by a number of salient biographical details. Broadly speaking, he had a love of old things, of tradition; “I will be loyal to loves that are not of yesterday,” he wrote in 1900 (Stanford 149). Pound, a professed admirer, called him a “traditionalist of traditionalists” and praised him for “an old-fashioned kind of precision,” while observing that “his language is formal… His language is a bookish dialect, or rather it is not a dialect, it is a curial speech” (Pound v-vi). He is often judged as being more old-fashioned than his contemporaries, and although he worked within the Decadent movement of the 1890s, he was somewhat dismissive of it: of his Decadent colleague Arthur Symons he wrote, “he is a slave to impressionism, whether the impression be precious or not. A London fog, the blurred, tawny lamplight, the red omnibus, the dreary rain, the depressing mud, the glaring gin-shop, the slatternly shivering women: three dexterous stanzas, telling you that and nothing more” (Stanford 21).
Like other young poets of the 1890s (Dowson and Gray, for instance) Johnson converted to Catholicism in 1891. His new found Catholicism influenced his poetry. He wrote many religious poems, and Cevasco notes that his religious poetry is “intensely devotional… like that of the Metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century” (Cevasco 256).
Two more details are of note: Johnson as Irish and Johnson as homosexual. The first of these identities was adopted and passionately cultivated. Johnson had always had an interest in Irish culture, and prior to his conversion to Catholicism had begun writing about Irish issues. But as Cevasco writes, “Johnson’s Catholicism… supplied him with reasons for involvement in Irish politics” (Cevasco 263). Johnson went so far as to identify himself as an Irishman, advocating the cause of Home Rule. He delivered many lectures on Irish topics in Belfast and Dublin when once he began traveling to his adopted nation (Cevasco 263). As the title suggests, many of the poems found in his second collection Ireland, With Other Poems treat of the country.
Johnson’s homosexuality, unlike his being Irish, was firmly repressed. To what extent he consummated his sexual desires remains a matter of conjecture (Cevasco 261), although Fletcher notes that “there seems no doubt that such practices were discontinued after his reception into the Latin Church.” (Fletcher xxii) How far his sexuality influenced his poetry is a matter of further conjecture. Johnson dedicates almost all of his poems to a named male figure, and although this was common practice for poets in the 1890s, Stanford suggests that, following his conversion, Johnson sublimated his desires into a “cult of friendship” (Stanford 19-20). His much-anthologized poem “The Dark Angel” has been interpreted as a veiled treatment of his homosexuality. It is also thought that his repressed sexuality lead or contributed to his alcoholism.
Towards the end of his life, Johnson’s alcoholism worsened, and he became increasingly reclusive and solitary. His health deteriorated, and though he is rumored to have died the ignominious death of a drunk (a story was floated that he mortally fractured his skull by falling off a bar stool), in reality he died in St. Bartholomew Hospital on October 4th, 1902, due to a series of strokes and a ruptured blood vessel, at the age of 35 (Fletcher xxxiii-xxxiv).
JD/Engl386/UVic/Fall2012
Works Cited
Benvenuto, Richard. “The Rhymers’ Club (1890-1896).” Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Sally Mitchell. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988. 669-670. Print.
Cevasco, G. A. Three Decadent Poets, Ernest Dowson, John Gray, and Lionel Johnson: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990. Print.
Fletcher, Ian. Introduction. The Complete Poems of Lionel Johnson. By Lionel Johnson. London: The Unicorn Press, 1953. Xi-xliv. Print.
Pound, Ezra. Preface. Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson. By Lionel Johnson. London: Elkin Mathews, 1915. V-xix. Print.
Stanford, Derek. Poets of the ‘Nineties: A Biographical Anthology. London: John baker, 1965. Print.
Three Poets of the Rhymers’ Club. Cheshire: Carcanet Press, 1974. Print.
A seldom-examined figure in literary-critical circles, Lionel Pigot Johnson was an English poet and critic. The greater part of Johnson’s work was produced during the 1890s, owing to the author’s untimely death in 1902. Johnson was born in Kent on the 15th of March, 1867. His parents were Anglican, his father an army officer and his mother the daughter of a barrister (Cevasco 256). When not away at preparatory school, he grew up at the family’s home in Windsor Forest (Stanford 16). He was something of a black sheep amongst his siblings because of his relatively small frame (he didn’t grow any higher than a few inches above five feet, maintaining an adolescent appearance into adulthood) and his literary calling (his brothers became military men after the fashion of their father) (Cevasco 256).
Following prep school, he was admitted to Winchester College, where he flourished, becoming editor of the school journal the Wykehamistand accruing various other academic honors (Cevasco 257). He then attended New College, Oxford, on a scholarship, where he distinguished himself amongst his peers as being exceptionally erudite and widely read. It was also at Oxford that he first attained the fondness for drinking that would eventually become a ruinous alcoholism (Stanford 17). After graduating with a first, he moved to London, where he began his career as a man of letters, writing as a critic and reviewer for periodicals such as the Academy, the Pall Mall Gazette, and the Daily Chronicle (Cevasco 256).
Shortly after his arrival in London, Johnson joined the group known as the Rhymers’ Club. Formed during the summer of 1890, the Club consisted of an assortment of young male poets who met regularly at the Cheshire Cheese, a local tavern, to read and discuss their work. Members included Ernest Dowson, Arthur Symons, John Davidson and W.B. Yeats (Benvenuto 669). The Rhymers’ Club published two anthologies—The Book of the Rhymers’ Club in 1892 and The Second Book of the Rhymers’ Club in 1894. The first book contained six poems by Johnson, including "Plato in London" and "A Burden of Easter Vigil", while the second contained a further six of his, among them "Mystic and Cavalier" and "The Dark Angel".
Johnson himself authored only three books during his lifetime. The first of these was not a book of poetry but a work of criticism entitled The Art of Thomas Hardy, published in 1894. His next book was a collection of poetry he had written over the past several years, the 1895 Poems. His third and last book, Ireland, With Other Poems, was published in 1897.
Johnson’s life and work are characterized by a number of salient biographical details. Broadly speaking, he had a love of old things, of tradition; “I will be loyal to loves that are not of yesterday,” he wrote in 1900 (Stanford 149). Pound, a professed admirer, called him a “traditionalist of traditionalists” and praised him for “an old-fashioned kind of precision,” while observing that “his language is formal… His language is a bookish dialect, or rather it is not a dialect, it is a curial speech” (Pound v-vi). He is often judged as being more old-fashioned than his contemporaries, and although he worked within the Decadent movement of the 1890s, he was somewhat dismissive of it: of his Decadent colleague Arthur Symons he wrote, “he is a slave to impressionism, whether the impression be precious or not. A London fog, the blurred, tawny lamplight, the red omnibus, the dreary rain, the depressing mud, the glaring gin-shop, the slatternly shivering women: three dexterous stanzas, telling you that and nothing more” (Stanford 21).
Like other young poets of the 1890s (Dowson and Gray, for instance) Johnson converted to Catholicism in 1891. His new found Catholicism influenced his poetry. He wrote many religious poems, and Cevasco notes that his religious poetry is “intensely devotional… like that of the Metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century” (Cevasco 256).
Two more details are of note: Johnson as Irish and Johnson as homosexual. The first of these identities was adopted and passionately cultivated. Johnson had always had an interest in Irish culture, and prior to his conversion to Catholicism had begun writing about Irish issues. But as Cevasco writes, “Johnson’s Catholicism… supplied him with reasons for involvement in Irish politics” (Cevasco 263). Johnson went so far as to identify himself as an Irishman, advocating the cause of Home Rule. He delivered many lectures on Irish topics in Belfast and Dublin when once he began traveling to his adopted nation (Cevasco 263). As the title suggests, many of the poems found in his second collection Ireland, With Other Poems treat of the country.
Johnson’s homosexuality, unlike his being Irish, was firmly repressed. To what extent he consummated his sexual desires remains a matter of conjecture (Cevasco 261), although Fletcher notes that “there seems no doubt that such practices were discontinued after his reception into the Latin Church.” (Fletcher xxii) How far his sexuality influenced his poetry is a matter of further conjecture. Johnson dedicates almost all of his poems to a named male figure, and although this was common practice for poets in the 1890s, Stanford suggests that, following his conversion, Johnson sublimated his desires into a “cult of friendship” (Stanford 19-20). His much-anthologized poem “The Dark Angel” has been interpreted as a veiled treatment of his homosexuality. It is also thought that his repressed sexuality lead or contributed to his alcoholism.
Towards the end of his life, Johnson’s alcoholism worsened, and he became increasingly reclusive and solitary. His health deteriorated, and though he is rumored to have died the ignominious death of a drunk (a story was floated that he mortally fractured his skull by falling off a bar stool), in reality he died in St. Bartholomew Hospital on October 4th, 1902, due to a series of strokes and a ruptured blood vessel, at the age of 35 (Fletcher xxxiii-xxxiv).
JD/Engl386/UVic/Fall2012
Works Cited
Benvenuto, Richard. “The Rhymers’ Club (1890-1896).” Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Sally Mitchell. New York: Garland Publishing, 1988. 669-670. Print.
Cevasco, G. A. Three Decadent Poets, Ernest Dowson, John Gray, and Lionel Johnson: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990. Print.
Fletcher, Ian. Introduction. The Complete Poems of Lionel Johnson. By Lionel Johnson. London: The Unicorn Press, 1953. Xi-xliv. Print.
Pound, Ezra. Preface. Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson. By Lionel Johnson. London: Elkin Mathews, 1915. V-xix. Print.
Stanford, Derek. Poets of the ‘Nineties: A Biographical Anthology. London: John baker, 1965. Print.
Three Poets of the Rhymers’ Club. Cheshire: Carcanet Press, 1974. Print.